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Shooting Elephants In the Face: Well-Done, Alot of Fun

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Shooting Elephants In the Face: Well-Done, Alot of Fun

by

Abby Zimet

Just when you thought you couldn't hate the NRA any more comes this video from Under Wild Skies, an NRA-sponsored, so-called sports show being inexplicably aired by NBC, in which tough guy, Indiana Jones-wannabee and NRA lobbyist Tony Makris bravely goes forth into Botswana to massacre an elephant - an act about to be but not quite yet illegal - finally downing it on the third shot by shooting it in the face and then gleefully gloating, after the suffering animal charged him, that "somebody got a little cheeky there." There are two well-deserved petitions to cancel the show.

A GUN lobbyist has prompted outrage against a major US TV network with the cruel and bungled slaughter of an elephant for a sports show.

National Rifle Association mouthpiece Tony Makris, kitted up like India Jones, shoots the terrified animal in the face, chases it down and kills it while on a legal hunting safari in Botswana, the footage being shown on the NBC Sports Network in a hunting show called Under Wild Skies.

The hunting video is causing growing outrage across the internet and NBC faces a backlash from viewers who say they will no longer watch its sports channel.

On the program, Makris is led into the Botswana wilderness by a hunting guide. They hide behind a bush just a few metres from the unsuspecting elephant. Makris shoots at the animal twice, but does not kill it, so he has to chase it and finish it off

GUN lobbyist has prompted outrage against a major US TV network with the cruel and bungled slaughter of an elephant for a sports show.

National Rifle Association mouthpiece Tony Makris, kitted up like India Jones, shoots the terrified animal in the face, chases it down and kills it while on a legal hunting safari in Botswana, the footage being shown on the NBC Sports Network in a hunting show called Under Wild Skies.

The hunting video is causing growing outrage across the internet and NBC faces a backlash from viewers who say they will no longer watch its sports channel.

On the program, Makris is led into the Botswana wilderness by a hunting guide. They hide behind a bush just a few metres from the unsuspecting elephant. Makris shoots at the animal twice, but does not kill it, so he has to chase it and finish it off.

Makris opens fire on the wounded, terrified elephant as it tres to escape.

In the next shot, Makris and the hunting guide are standing next to the dead animal.

In another scene from the show, Makris demonstrates how he was aiming at the elephants face.

Controlled big game hunting still goes on in Africa and many reserves are set up by governments, who use money paid by rich safari hunters to fund broader conservation efforts. Elephant numbers in Botswana, however, have declined so greatly that a ban on hunting has been legislated. That ban won't come into force until next year.

GUN lobbyist has prompted outrage against a major US TV network with the cruel and bungled slaughter of an elephant for a sports show.

National Rifle Association mouthpiece Tony Makris, kitted up like India Jones, shoots the terrified animal in the face, chases it down and kills it while on a legal hunting safari in Botswana, the footage being shown on the NBC Sports Network in a hunting show called Under Wild Skies.

The hunting video is causing growing outrage across the internet and NBC faces a backlash from viewers who say they will no longer watch its sports channel.

On the program, Makris is led into the Botswana wilderness by a hunting guide. They hide behind a bush just a few metres from the unsuspecting elephant. Makris shoots at the animal twice, but does not kill it, so he has to chase it and finish it off.

Makris opens fire on the wounded, terrified elephant as it tres to escape.

In the next shot, Makris and the hunting guide are standing next to the dead animal.

In another scene from the show, Makris demonstrates how he was aiming at the elephants face.

Controlled big game hunting still goes on in Africa and many reserves are set up by governments, who use money paid by rich safari hunters to fund broader conservation efforts. Elephant numbers in Botswana, however, have declined so greatly that a ban on hunting has been legislated. That ban won't come into force until next year.

Further

With the toxic Bibi circus in town - cue talk of "tentacles of terror" - find hope in the extraordinary Combatants For Peace, a joint effort by weary Israeli and Palestinian veterans of violence who've laid down their guns to fight for peace. Led by a former IDF soldier and Fatah militant who both lost daughters to the conflict's "unrightable wrongs," they insist on the need to "hear what is painful" and talk to your 'enemies': "Partners for peace always exist. You only have to look for them."